Title :
Building up to macroprogramming: an intermediate language for sensor networks
Author :
Newton, Ryan ; Arvind ; Welsh, Matt
Author_Institution :
Comput. Sci. & Artificial Intelligence Lab., Massachusetts Inst. of Technol., Cambridge, MA, USA
Abstract :
There is widespread agreement that a higher level programming model for sensor networks is needed. A variety of models have been developed, but the community is far from consensus. We propose an intermediate language to speed up the exploration of this design space. Our language, called the token machine language (TML) can be targeted by compilers for higher level systems. TML provides a layer of abstraction for a lower-level runtime environment, such as TinyOS. TML is intended to capture coordinated activity in a sensor network. Notable features of TML are its atomic action model of concurrency, and its unification of communication, control, and storage around the concept of a token. Tokens are small objects, typically under a hundred bytes, and can be disseminated across the network. A token causes computation upon its arrival at a site by invoking a token handler. The effect of the computation is to atomically change the token´s own state as well as the state of shared variables at the site.
Keywords :
high level languages; program compilers; programming environments; wireless sensor networks; TML; atomic action model; higher level programming model; intermediate language; lower-level runtime environment; macroprogramming; sensor network; shared variable; token handler; token machine language; Artificial intelligence; Atomic layer deposition; Communication system control; Computer science; Concurrent computing; High level languages; Intelligent sensors; Laboratories; Runtime environment; Virtual machining;
Conference_Titel :
Information Processing in Sensor Networks, 2005. IPSN 2005. Fourth International Symposium on
Print_ISBN :
0-7803-9201-9
DOI :
10.1109/IPSN.2005.1440891